Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - It's not just the weather that's cooler in Canada

Charlatan · 12-14-2005, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seaver

Well, the irony is the Canadian Army has recently started employing bicycles to it's infantry (I kid you not).

They cant afford new Armored Personel Carriers, and some of the old ones date to WWII. To think, we caught flack for not having our Hummers armor plated... they're riding into battle like armed 12 year olds.

Funny you should bring that up... apparently our vehicles are, in fact, armoured. This one was hit with a roadside bomb near Maywand, Afghanistan. The three soldiers and one UK journalist inside were injured but are alive.

Quote:

LINK

Bomb ripped apart vehicle carrying Edmonton soldiers in Afghanistan
Last updated Dec 12 2005 04:31 PM MST
CBC News
Three Edmonton-based soldiers were injured when a bomb detonated under their vehicle in southern Afghanistan Monday, described by a journalist riding with them as a "complete disaster scene."

A Canadian soldier examines the wreckage of a military vehicle damaged in a roadside bomb attack near Maywand, Afghanistan. Three Canadian soldiers were injured. (Courtesy DND)
Tim Albone, a reporter with Global Radio News, said they were travelling in a lightly armoured vehicle through a dry riverbed about 90 kilometres west of Kandahar midday Monday when the bomb exploded under a front tire.

"In the moment of the blast, I remember hearing a pop sort of like a door slamming," he said. "The next thing I knew, the two guys in the front – the driver and a passenger – were both screaming. They both had broken legs."

Albone said he turned to look for the soldier who had been sitting in a 250-kilogram gun turret and saw that the soldier and the turret had been ripped from the vehicle by the force of the blast.

He said the bomb destroyed the vehicle's engine, hurled the hood about 150 metres, threw a front tire 500 metres and sent plumes of black smoke into the air.

"It was just a complete disaster scene, really," he said.

He said military officials later told him that the quartet only survived because of the armour on the vehicle, which was one of the Mercedes-Benz Gelaendewagens (known as "G Wagons") recently purchased by the Canadian military.

Albone said it took about 40 minutes for medical crews to reach them, in part because they feared more bombs could be hidden in the area.

He said he lifted up the turret that was trapping the gunner on the ground.

Then they pulled the two other soldiers out of the wreckage, splinting up one man's leg with a basic first aid kit they found in the G wagon.

Once help arrived, they were taken from the site near the town of Maywand to a U.S. military field hospital in Kandahar.

The Canadian Department of National Defence said Monday that the soldiers, all with 3rd battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, were in stable condition.

Col. Steve Bowes said one soldier had a broken leg and another had a broken ankle and foot. He said the third soldier escaped with minor injuries.

The military hasn't named the soldiers but said their families have been notified.

Albone said coalition troops had arrested two people who were seen tearing away from the scene of the bombing on a motorcycle. He said they had been handed over to Afghan troops.

Neither Canadian nor Afghan officials have confirmed the arrests.

Last week, three members of Canada's commando unit, Joint Task Force 2, were injured in an operation against insurgents in Afghanistan.

In late November, a Canadian soldier was killed in Afghanistan when the armoured vehicle he was riding in rolled over near the city of Kandahar. Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield, 24, was the eighth Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002.

In April 2002, four soldiers from the 3rd battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry were killed when an American pilot accidentally bombed them during a training exercise.